Luminosity
by late-night-bloomer
Summary: Life is ever-changing for Natsu and Lucy, but with love and one another, they can deal with all of it; even if it's figuring out who's who, meddling would-be uncles and aunts, and a guild whose decided that it's in their children's best interest to spoil them rotten. One-shot collection. Family!NaLu.


Another Saturday has come and gone with me realizing that Saturday is not going to work for me when it comes to updating The War in Summer. I feel incredibly guilty about not having the chapter ready, but with some major editing issues going on with it, I've pushed back the chapter for at least two more days. In the interim, I've got a sorta canon/AU one-shot as compensation for my fellow NaLu shippers. It's set several years in the future, so our heroes are older and life is changing once again for them. Seeing as I've got at least two more one-shots on the back burner for this same universe, I've decided to make this a collection. (whose name will most probably change cause I'm not sure I like of the one it has now.) I also want to give credit where credit is due, and that would be to Miss Pavalova, for the name Ember. _To What We Once Were_ is one of my all time favorite NaLu stories, and I've always had it in the back of my mind to use the name in a family!Nalu story. I hope she doesn't mind. :)

If I owned Fairy Tail...all my ships would have so many babies that they all wouldn't fit in a tankōbon volume.

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**oOo**

**Parts of Fire**

**oOo**

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The small white waiting room was crammed full with people. Every single brown plastic chair held a member of the Fairy Tail guild, their faces taunt with worry. The staff had ran out of chairs within an hour of Lucy being admitted to the hospital, but that didn't stop her family from filing in, claiming floor space to occupy and walls to lean against. That had been five hours ago.

Team Natsu, minus its namesake, stalked the hall in front of Lucy's room in nearly a uniformed line. Gray had lost his shirt and pants on the way to the hospital, and the scrubs the nurses had given him where scattered on the floor. He paid them no heed. Erza, with her arms crossed stiffly over her metal covered chest, was mumbling to herself, her gaze far in the distance. Wendy sat against the wall at the end of the hall, asleep with Carla.

"Isn't it taking too long?" Gray growled. He heard Lucy groan through the door and blanched. "Where the hell is Natsu?"

"Jet's gone to fetch him. He'll be back in no time, as soon as he gets word." Erza said for at least the twentieth time. "He was supposed to have at least two weeks before-"

The door to Lucy's room opened and out came Levy McGarden, her face flushed and harried. Her brown eyes sparkled with excitement. "Is he here yet?" she asked.

"No- he should be here any moment. What? Is the baby-" Erza started.

"Everything's fine. It's just…a little surprise. That's all." Levy said, her smile so wide her face could barely contain it. Gray and Erza looked at one another and before they could force the blue haired girl to give up details, Natsu Dragneel was barreling down the hallway with Happy and Gajeel hot on his heels.

"It's about damn time you got here, flame brain. Your wife goes into labor and you're off on a mission!" Gray snorted, shaking his head.

"What was that, Ice breath?"

"Not the time for this, boys!" Levy and Erza barked at once. The fact that they were both nearly twenty-five years old could not deter them for having petty brawls at every chance, even at the birth of a new Fairy Tail member.

"Is she okay?" Natsu asked, his face, which had lost its youthful roundness, was drawn and nervous as he focused on the door in front of him.

"Go see for yourself." Gajeel told him, shoving him into the room. Levy step to the side out of the pink-haired man's way, curling her arm around Gajeel's waist. "So how is bunny girl?" He asked her when the door to the room had been closed again.

Levy's smile grew again. "In pain, obviously. And shock too. Porlyusica thought the extreme morning sickness and Lucy's fatigue might have had something to do with Natsu's magic. But it's turned out to be something much more common. Lucy didn't have any of her checkups at the hospital since Porlyusica was going to act as her midwife-"

"But Porlyusica is out of town-" Gray mentioned.

"And Lucy went into premature labor-" Erza started.

"So she ended up at a hospital anyway." Levy went on as if she hadn't been interrupted. "The doctor said it was common for a woman to go into labor early when she's having-"

A shout sounded from the room next to them. "Twins?!" Natsu's voice drifted out to them.

"Twins." Levy repeated. "Lucy didn't have an ultrasound her entire pregnancy, and Porlyusica missed it."

The assembled members stared at each other for several minutes before excited chatter burst forth.

"They are going to be so adorable!" Levy gushed.

"Double dragon slayers, eh?" Gajeel looked on approvingly.

"Oh God, two brats with Natsu's genes, the guild will be in GUH-" Gray's words abruptly ended as Erza elbowed him in the stomach.

"I-I'll do my best to provide for the babies." The redhead stammered.

"They're not your kids, Titania." Gajeel interjected.

Soon, a baby's cry could be heard from inside the room and another soon joined it. Levy squealed and hugged Gajeel tight as they all waited for news from inside the room. Levy and Erza's voices grew louder and louder in excitement, waking Wendy and sending a nurse out from the station to hush them. Happy flitted about anxiously until Carla snagged his tail and made him sit down next to her and Wendy.

"What's the hold up?" Gray asked under his breath, his hands fidgeting with the waistband of his underwear. Just as he was about to shove them off his hips, the attending nurse opened the door to Lucy's room.

"Two more can come in now." The nurse smiled brightly. Mom and babies are doing fine. Who wants to go first?"

Levy gestured to Gray and Erza. "You guys should go first. You are her teammates." She said. Gajeel nodded.

"We'll go tell the others." Wendy volunteered. She and Carla disappeared around the corner to the waiting room.

"Are you sure?" Erza asked.

Levy laughed. "I'm pretty sure she's still tired of me telling her to breathe deeply. You guys go."

The nurse hummed as she ushered Erza and Gray into the room. Inside, Lucy, with her hair matted to her face and drenched with sweat, was giving an exhausted scowl to her significant other, who was holding one of the small bundles in wonder.

"Natsu Dragneel, if you try to raise my daughter above your head one more time-"

"But Luce, they're so…amazing." His usually bright face showed something akin to awe. "Thank you."

"Ah, nothing to it." Lucy said lightly, her voice hoarse.

"You do realize that we could hear you moan and groan out in the hallway, right?" Gray mentioned. "And cursing out Levy."

Lucy laughed. "I was in the moment." She beckoned them forward. "Come on and meet them, they won't bite." she said.

"Have you decided on names?" Erza asked.

"I'm still trying to get over the fact there's two." Gray said.

Natsu grinned. "We hadn't decided on a name yet."

"But I think I know two I might like." Lucy murmured, staring down at the little girl in her arms, studying every facet of her small blush pink face, the wisps of fine blonde hair gracing the crown of her head. She couldn't even begin to string together words that would express the infinite happiness she felt as she finally held her and Natsu's child. The fact that there were two only made her feel like her heart was near to bursting with love. Without lifting her face, she glanced at Natsu. "I like Cinder and Ember."

"Really?" he asked anxiously. "Because, you didn't like them before."

"I didn't like them when I thought we we're only having one. But together…they just fit."

"Cinder and Ember?" Erza tried them out, her arms going across her chest. "Good, strong names. I like them."

"Do you really have to name them after flame breath? We'll never hear the end of it-" Gray's complaint was cut short by Erza's armored elbow. "They're nice together." He amended.

"So, which is which? Who will be who?" Natsu asked as he brought the daughter he was holding back to his wife, he kissed the top of her head affectionately, ignoring Gray's exasperated groan. "They're both blonde." He pointed out as he slowly rubbed his fingers over head of the little girl in his arms.

"I-I don't know. You choose?" Lucy said as she looked between their daughters.

"Uh…I-" Natsu stalled.

"Oh come on, it can't be that hard." Gray said, stepping forward. He pointed to the girl in Natsu's arms. "Cinder." And then to Lucy's arms. "Ember."

"Oi, don't just go deciding which is which. They'll have these names until eternity, they don't need an ice fairy just randomly picking-"

"How about you decided by who was born first?" The attending nurse blurted out, hoping to stop an impending fight. Fairy Tail mages were known far and wide to cause property damage of the smallest, incidental arguments.

"A fine idea." Erza agreed. "Who was first?" She looked to Lucy, who laughed.

"I was a little pain crazed to really remember who came first."

The nurse came over to the couple and glanced at the wristbands on each girl. "Mrs. Dragneel is holding Baby B, born at 4:58pm, and Mr. Dragneel is holding Baby A, born at 4:53pm." She told them.

"So…Cinder is Baby A, and Ember is Baby B?" Lucy said aloud. Natsu looked down at his daughters, already imagining teaching them his dragon slayer magic, and showing them off to Igneel, when he finally found the elusive fire dragon.

"Yeah, I like that." He said, trailing his fingers over the little girl in his arms again. He couldn't get enough of touching her, the wonder of her-and her sister- finally being here, after the nine months of waiting, of Lucy's nearly chronic fatigue, weird cravings, obsession with all things tiny and baby associated. Not to mention the guild's ongoing excitement for the next generation's newest member, the colossal baby shower, and everyone's insatiable need to touch Lucy's stomach every time the celestial mage had been in range. "Hi Cinder." He said to the baby in his arms. He looked to the girl Lucy held. "Hello Ember. Welcome to Fairy Tail."

Lucy snorted, giggling at his words. "Shouldn't it be, 'welcome to the world'?" she asked. Outside the door a large commotion could be heard, voices shouting, loud thumps along the wall outside the hospital door. Natsu grinned as his ears picked up the voice of Happy over all of it, yelling that he was going to see his siblings first before anyone else. The nurse quickly went to the door, murmuring about it being too rowdy for a maternity ward, pulling it open to scold the guild members that had converged into the hall. She stopped short when she saw the twenty or so people trying to cram their way into the room, all chatting excitedly at once.

"Wait a minute! There's too many of you!" she shouted. Her voice was drowned out as the Strauss sisters caught sight of the twin girls in Natsu and Lucy's arms, and began to squeal in pure abandon.

Natsu turned his head to his wife, reaching out to brush away the errant blonde hairs on her forehead. "I got it right. Their world, just like ours, is Fairy Tail." He leaned down and gave her a soft, sweet kiss.

Gray rolled his eyes at the mushiness. "Just so we're straight; I got it right too. He's holding Cinder, she's holding Ember. I named their twins." He crossed his arms over his chest triumphantly.

And since Natsu was occupied kissing his wife, Erza elbowed him again in the ribs. "Shut up, Gray."


End file.
